Well...after all the analisys of all possible options and combinations, we are going for Round the world ticket!! Finally we have the plan - at least till December :-))
Majority of RTW packages make you cross the ocean and go in one direction. You cant go back to the place you've been before and only need to fly forward. There are different prices and combinations, but all of them are based on following:
1) Miles count (km) - you need to calculate all miles of all flights, and based on the lengh of your route you get the price.
2) Quantity of stops and continents you cross - max stops should be not more then 16.
We were looking at different options:
- OneWorld: includes air companies as Iberia, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Bristish Airways, Japan Airlines.... This agency has a really good coverage of all packages that we have seen, but it can be good option only in case you really are going round the world - and not only concentrating on one area , like Asia & Pacific for example. If you live in UK, no problem to contact them - but for different locations could be a bit tough to get in touch with them and get a quotation.
Anyway, we did a similation which looked like this:
London - Rio de Janeiro - Buenos Aires - Sydney - Melbourne - Christchurch - Auckland - Singapore - Hong Kong - Tokyo - Beijing - London and all this for a price of 2900€...cool eh? :-)
- Star Alliance: Lufthansa, Thai, Spanair, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, All Japan Airlines, US Airways... Good international coverage, but not so much in Australia. There is a web aplication where you can simulate your route and get good options. RTW will be around 3500€.
- SkyTeam: Air France, KLM, Continental, Aeroflot... They dont have so much coverage in Asia Pacific, but good one in the rest of the world...Very difficult to get in touch with. In the end they told us to call some call center, but we didnt, since anyway it was more expensive then other options.
In the same time, we've been in touch with different independent tourist agencies, which can actually offer you good prices for the package - but you need to know exactly where and when you are going...and how many days you will stay there - otherwise, they can't help you much :-)
Some of them are:
- The World WalkAbout
- Round the World Flights - this one we chose in the end
- TravelBag
- TravelNation
- TrailFinders
Here you can calcute your miles Web (http://www.geobytes.com/citydistancetool.htm)
